for us today, and I thank her
for that. Well, we're in Mark chapter 10.
The last few verses, 46 through 52, let me talk to you about
the line, Bartimaeus. Bart means the son of. He's the son of Timaeus. Now Mark tells us, and I remind
you that John Mark wrote this by the spirit of inspiration. He was not actually here. If
you want to read a little bit about John Mark, you go into
the book of Acts to read about him. So he wasn't an observer
of this miracle that our Lord Jesus wrought upon Bartimaeus. But nevertheless, it's as though
he were there because the Spirit of God inspired him, told him
what to write. But Mark tells us that our Lord
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Look back in verse 33 of this
chapter, Mark 10, 33. Our Lord Jesus was saying to
these men, to his disciples, behold, we go up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests and unto the scribes. They shall condemn
him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they
shall mock him and scourge him and shall spit upon him and shall
kill him. And the third day he shall rise
again. In Luke's account of this, which
is in Luke chapter 20, no 18, sorry, in Luke's account of this,
He tells us that the disciples still didn't understand the necessity
of the Savior going to Jerusalem and then being betrayed and being
crucified and suffering and bleeding and dying. They did not understand
the necessity for His cross death. right after Simon Peter in the
book of Matthew chapter 16 had confessed that Jesus was the
Son of God. Our Lord Jesus, first of all,
that's the first time he clearly said to his disciples, I must
go to Jerusalem and I must lay down my life. But I will take
it again. But his disciples weren't happy
that he talked about dying. They could not envision a Messiah
dying when they envisioned Him as being the conquering King
who would rule over Israel and then run the Romans out of town,
run them out of the country. And they didn't want to hear
Him talk about His death. In fact, that's the occasion
when Simon Peter pulled Him aside and said, Not so, Lord. Don't
talk about dying. We're not following one who is
to be defeated. We're following one who is going
to be enthroned upon the throne of David and have all authority
over Israel and will become the most important kingdom in the
world just like it was in the days of David and Solomon. But
they didn't understand that our Lord Jesus did not come to establish
an earthly kingdom. He came to live and die to lay
down his life in order to satisfy God and save the people that
he came to save. So he tells these men that they're
going up to Jerusalem. So they're on their way to Jerusalem.
They get to Jericho. When they get to Jericho, and
you can read this in the book of Matthew, and that's chapter
20. In the book of Matthew, chapter 20, as he entered into Jericho,
he came across two, two men who were blind. And he healed both
of them. And then he goes through Jericho,
and we know that Zacchaeus was in Jericho. He had climbed up
a tree to see the Savior out of curiosity. And our Lord saved
him. And now he is going, he's almost
finished going through Jericho. And he is confronted by a man
who is pleading, begging, a man who is in a very pitiful condition. And his name is Bartimaeus. There's a very powerful statement
in verse 49 that I would have you underline. And if you don't
underline it literally, at least make a note of it in your memory. And Jesus stood still. You know, from the outset of
our Lord's birth, People tried to stop him. Well, Herod tried
to stop him and put him out of business, tried to kill him.
And our Lord revealed to the wise men that they should not
go back and tell Herod where the Lord Jesus was, but go on
your way. And then Herod passed an edict,
he passed a law that any male baby two years and under, he
said, kill them all in and around Bethlehem. But the Spirit of
God had led Joseph to take Mary and the Lord Jesus into Egypt
for safety. Because Herod was not the one
who was going to kill him. After he was baptized, Satan
tried to do away with the master, at least do away with his authority
as the son of God with power. He was taken by the Spirit of
God, forced by the Spirit of God, actually out in the wilderness
for 40 days and 40 nights where Satan tempted him and tried to
overthrow him, tried to conquer him, but that failed, that failed. On numerous occasions, the Pharisees
tried to kill Him. They wanted to stone Him. But
it wasn't ordained that He die by stoning. It was ordained,
you can study this back in the Old Testament, that He must die
upon a tree. Cursed is everyone that dieth
on a tree. That's where our Lord Jesus was
heading. He was heading to Jerusalem to
die on the cross in order to save the people of God's choice. Nobody could stop Him, but here's
a poor, helpless beggar. And our Lord Jesus is just a
little less than 20 miles from Jerusalem. He's in the last days
of His life, that is, that preceded His death upon the cross of Calvary. He had set His face like a flint. toward Jerusalem. You see, from
old eternity, He's been pointing to this hour that the Father
assigned to Him, that time when He would give His life, that
time when He would bleed and die for sinners such as us. That's the only way justice could
be satisfied, and nobody could stop it. Herod couldn't stop
Him. Satan couldn't stop him. The Pharisees couldn't stop him,
and boy, they surely tried, but they couldn't. And he's already
gone through Jericho, and he's heading out of town, going to
Jerusalem, and a poor man crying for mercy, and Jesus stood still. What in the world, who in the
world could cause the Master, the Savior, who's on a beeline
toward the cross, what could stop Him, who could stop Him
from continuing? A needy sinner. A beggar. A mercy beggar. And our Lord Jesus stopped in
His tracks. You remember back in the book
of Joshua, Israel was fighting a war, fighting a battle. Boy,
I tell you, there's whipping up on the enemy too. But it's
getting late in the day. And Joshua, by the power of God,
commanded, thou son, stand still. Thou moon, stand still. And you know what they did? They
did. Gave them a few more extra hours
to punch the enemy away and do away with them. Well, let me tell you something.
The one who really ordered the sun that shines in the sky to
stand still and the moon that shines by night not stand still
moon, don't you come up yet. The one who had that kind of
power, he himself stopped. And he stood still. Now let me ask you something.
Does the Bible not say Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today,
and forever? He's still the same Lord Jesus
Christ who hears the cry of sinners. And if God puts it in your heart,
God the Holy Spirit puts it in your heart to say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Let me tell you something. He
always stands still for that. He's not too busy to hear your
cry. I don't know who you are, don't
know what you've done, none of my business. I'll tell you this. Our Lord Jesus, He's the Savior
of the sinful. And as somebody said, He's in
the saving business. We're in the sinning business
and He's in the saving business. And that there's some poor blind
Bartimaeus in this congregation or watching by the internet or
listening later on to this CD or watching a DVD or whatever.
If in your heart you find a need for Christ the Savior, He will
not be deaf to your cry. And you will find that when you
cry out to Him, essentially He stands still and He'll ask you
like He asked Bartimaeus. What do you want me to do for
you? What do you want me to do for
you? What if the Lord of glory, who owns all things, he has everything. Somebody said he owns the cattle
on a thousand hills. He does and he owns the hills
too. He owns everything. If he asks you, now think about
it, if he asks you right now, what wilt thou have me to do
for thee? What would you answer? He's got everything. What wilt thou have me to do
for thee? Old blind Bartimaeus said that
I might receive my sight. I'd say, Lord, give me spiritual
eyesight to see your glory. to see your beauties, to see
my neediness, to see my helplessness, to see me in somewhat of the
light that you see me. Lord, save me. Lord, show me
mercy. Lord, wash me and make me clean. Make an application of your blood
to me and cleanse me of all my sins and robe me in your righteousness. That's what I ask of you, Lord.
Let me tell you something. He'll do it. Because you see,
it's like it was with blind Bartimaeus. The Spirit of God put this cry
in his heart. And it will be answered. The Bible says he's the son of
Timaeus. Timaeus means one who is impure, One who is
dishonorable, one who is polluted. Well, Jim, how does that relate
to you and me? Well, that's us spiritually.
Impure, polluted, and we are unclean. And the Bible says he
was blind. Here's a blind man He can't see anything. I did
a little bit of reading about blind men and women back in these
days. They liked to get somebody to
take them and set them in the sun because they might be able
to see just a glimmer of light. But at least they could feel
the warmth of the sunshine on their face. And this poor blind man, somebody
led him probably to his favorite spot. This is not like the beggars
that we have down here on the corners of the street. I don't
know who's really a beggar or who's trying to just get some
money from us. We just give to recognizable
charitable organizations. But he's a genuine blind man. He's got nothing. He's a beggar. He's poor. He's poor. In his
blindness, he's like us. He can't see his condition. Like we can't. We can't see how
foul we are and how unrighteous we are in the eyes of God. We're
blind. We're blind to the beauties of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you how blind we
are. A man can preach about the glories of the Son of God. that
He's God with us, He's Emmanuel. There's never been anybody like
Him, never will be anybody like Him. He's the eternal God, the
Savior of sinners. He's the one who, back in old
eternity, purposely would come into this world to live and die
for sinners, that we wouldn't have to go to hell. He's gonna
bear our wrath for us, and we're so blind, we can't even see the
necessity of that. We're blind to our guilt. We're
blind to who He is, His deity. He's the very image of the invisible
God. He's God over all, blessed forever. He spoke the world into existence. He spoke the sunshine into existence. And when Israel needed the sun
to stand still, all they did was will it. Sun, you're not
gonna move anymore for a while. And then he said, continue. And it continued. But we're blind
to his glory. We're blind to the needs that
we have that only he can meet. He's a blind man and he's a blind
beggar. Bad enough to be blind, but then
joined to that being poverty stricken. He's begging. And that's a picture
of us. Poverty stricken. What do you have to offer to
God? And I'll tell you, turn your
spiritual pockets inside out, you don't have a dime. What are
you going to offer to God? He owns everything. What are
you going to give Him? What are you going to offer Him? If you've
got any lick of wisdom whatsoever, you'll say, Lord, I got nothing. But I plead the blood of your
Son. That's what I plead. I plead
Him. He won't turn away that cry. And I'll tell you something else.
This man, Bartimaeus, he cannot come where the Lord Jesus Christ
is. So the Lord Jesus Christ goes
down that road where he's at. There's grace. There's monumental mercy. The Savior said, we'll go down
this road here. because he already knew. He had
already purposed that down there on the corner be this poor blind
baker. I tell you, this man's a picture
of us. Poor, blind, we have no righteousness,
we have no goodness, we have no knowledge, we have no ability
to see the things of God. He had no treasures of this earth. I read an interesting story.
Very wealthy man, very wealthy man out in Texas on a huge farm. A lot of pasture land and grazing
land for his, I don't know how many thousands of cattle he had.
But anyway, one day he was talking with his neighbor out in the
middle of the field. And he told his neighbor, he
said, look as far as you can see in
that direction. He said, you know, I own all
that. And he said, look as far as you
can in that direction. He said, I own all that. And
he said, see that, all that back there? Far as you can see, I
own all that. That's my property. I own it. And he said, out in this way,
he said, I own everything out there. As far as the eye can
see, I own it. The neighbor standing beside
of him said, well, that's wonderful. You own everything in all four
directions. But what do you own in this direction? What do you own in this direction?
Do you have treasures in heaven? And he hung his head in shame. I don't know what you own, doesn't
matter to me. But do you have a treasury in
heaven? And His name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is our treasury. I don't own any property in this
world, not in that direction, this direction, that direction,
or that direction. I don't own any property in this
world. But I'll tell you what, I have reservations in glory.
because there's a land that's been ordained for me from before
the foundation of the world, and I'm looking forward to going
to see my Savior face to face. Well, Bartimaeus, he heard some
good news. Look at this. Look at verse 47,
when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he knew there was
some kind of cause of stirring among the people. Here are people
talking. And somebody said, it's Jesus
of Nazareth. And I'm wondering if maybe somebody
didn't say, you know Bartimaeus? He healed two blind men who were
poor when he entered into the city. Hey, buddy, there's hope
for you. He heard some good news. Some
good news. I got some good news for you.
He healed this poor blind beggar. He healed me. He granted me saving
mercy and grace. And he'll do the same for you. And I bet you somebody told him,
you know, they say he's Emmanuel. They say he's the Messiah. And
I hear that when he brought his first message over there in Nazareth,
he got up and read a passage of scripture out of Isaiah chapter
61. And you know what it says in that passage, Bartimaeus?
He's gonna open the eyes of the blind. He can do that. And boy,
Bartimaeus, his heart began to beat faster. Oh, there's hope
for me. There's hope for me. So he made a heart's cry. He
began to cry out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
Jesus, thou Son of David, Emmanuel, Messiah, Son of God, have mercy
on me. And a lot of the people walking
with the Savior said in verse 48, hold your peace, shut up.
He's too busy to listen to you, you poor old blind fool. He don't
have time for you. He's going to the city of David
and we hope he's going to inaugurate his kingdom. But the more they told him to
shut up, the more he cried out. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me, on me. And Jesus stood still. Jesus stood still. And he commanded
him to be called. And I'll tell you who I think
he gave instructions to, to call him, his disciples. You call
that man. And I'll tell you, preachers
of the gospel, we call you to come to Christ. And they called the blind man,
saying, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he casting
away his garment, his garment of self-righteousness, of filthiness,
he cast it away. He rose and literally he jumped
up. He jumped up and he came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? What can I do for
you? What can He do for you? What
can He do for you? What can He do for you? What
do you want? And this blind man said, Lord,
that's a good way to start. That's a real good way to start.
Lord, He acknowledges the sovereign authority of the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. He said, Lord, sovereign master,
I want to receive my sight. I wish you, along with everybody
in this building and everybody listening to me, would say, Lord,
Do something for me. That preacher, he sounds like
the Lord has done something for him. I wish you'd do something
for me. Lord, I'm a poor blind beggar. I can't see the things of the
kingdom of God. I don't understand the Bible.
I can't see the fullness of my sinfulness, but I believe what
you said. I believe that all of sin comes
short of the glory of God. I want mercy. Lord, don't let
me perish. I want to receive my sight. And
Jesus said unto him, verse 52, go your way. Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And you know what? It says immediately
he received his sight, but he didn't run home and tell his
family. He didn't start jumping up and
down, go through the city, said, I can see, I can see, I can see. You know what he did? He followed
Jesus in the way, in the way of grace, in the way of righteousness,
in the way of truth, He followed Jesus, who is the way? Huh? He is the way. And the word follow
doesn't mean he took one trip with him. This is continuing
action. He continued to follow Jesus. And I'll tell you what, God does
something for you, you'll just continue to follow him. You'll
follow him like Ethan wants to do into the waters of baptism. And you'll follow Him all the
days of your life and say, this God-man is the one who gave me
sight. And I'm a poor beggar, but He
gave me the riches of His grace. The riches of His grace. And I'm going to be with him
one day, and I'm not going to pay any attention to the streets
of gold or the walls of Jasper or anything else. I'm going to
get to see him face to face. Oh, what a day that's going to
be. Well, let's get our songbooks. We're going to sing one more
song.